High Street chain collapse sweepstake

DJDave
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all new Phil wrote: Thu 02 Apr, 2020 21.30
DJDave wrote: Thu 02 Apr, 2020 20.48
Martin Phillp wrote: Wed 01 Apr, 2020 17.30 Whatever you may think of Mike Ashley, those stores would be better in his hands than the current Debenhams management.
Ha ha, have you not seen House Of Fraser since Mike Ashley took it over? it looks like an even bigger sports direct.
Maybe, but only one of Sports Direct and House of Fraser was successful enough to take over the other.
That maybe so but he is closing a lot of House Of Frasers down now.
JAS84
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Including the one in Hull - which was basically next door to a Sports Direct. If HOF is now stocking SD products, they didn't need both. I wonder if this is why some of the others are closing? Because they're too close together?
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WillPS
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JAS84 wrote: Sun 05 Apr, 2020 13.31 Including the one in Hull - which was basically next door to a Sports Direct. If HOF is now stocking SD products, they didn't need both. I wonder if this is why some of the others are closing? Because they're too close together?
It isn't. The Sports Direct stuff in House of Fraser is filler.
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WillPS
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JAS84
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Now Oasis and Warehouse are about to go into administration:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52285231
Whataday
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They've now gone into administration, with 200 immediate job losses, but 1800 staff will be furloughed and receive 80% of pay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52300055
scottishtv
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This thread will be busy soon I suspect, with badly-run or off-trend businesses finished off by the coronavirus disruption.

According to the papers, Zizzi and Ask Italian are struggling badly and have appointed KPMG to help negotiate with landlords. Also, Byron heading towards the brink too.
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Pete
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I think where we'll see the split is the restaurants that are either big PLCs (McDonalds) or privately owned (Nandos) vs the ones that are basically a front for a debt restructuring scheme (Zizzi).

The sad thing is there are a lot more of the latter than people realise. Same applies in retail.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
all new Phil
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People hugely underestimate how much money businesses are losing right now. Pretty much the entire hospitality industry has no revenue coming in, but still has rent and bills to pay along with the wages of anyone not furloughed (as all will need some employees still working - those who work the social media feeds, carry out building checks, plan out reopening etc).

The company I work for is based in the US and has had to seek $500m in loans just to make it through a few months.

The amounts of money being lost are eye-watering when you look across the entire economy. Part of me wonders if there’ll be an element of writing it all off somehow. I don’t profess to know how these things work but I can’t get my head round who is actually owed all this money.
cwathen
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all new Phil wrote: Mon 04 May, 2020 17.02 People hugely underestimate how much money businesses are losing right now. Pretty much the entire hospitality industry has no revenue coming in, but still has rent and bills to pay along with the wages of anyone not furloughed (as all will need some employees still working - those who work the social media feeds, carry out building checks, plan out reopening etc).

The company I work for is based in the US and has had to seek $500m in loans just to make it through a few months.

The amounts of money being lost are eye-watering when you look across the entire economy. Part of me wonders if there’ll be an element of writing it all off somehow. I don’t profess to know how these things work but I can’t get my head round who is actually owed all this money.
This is a point that I make constantly to people who deploy the angry face reaction and bark out 'too soon! FULL lockdown NOW' to cafes/restaurants which weren't required to shut in the first place starting to reopen along with support for the lockdown starting to wane in general.

It's a bit concerning that amongst all the talk of a 'new normal', too many people have already normalised themselves into lockdown; they have their own ducks sufficiently in a row to keep this up indefinitely and they are in no particular hurry to get out of it. The lockdown can be many things; it can be justified, understood, made the best of, but one thing it should never be is accepted as normal.

My own place of work is seriously likely to be making 50% of it's staff redundant, and that's on the assumption that we can reopen by the beginning of June. This is being replicated all over the place, millions and millions of jobs are at risk of being lost with only a tiny fraction of those people likely to find new employment any time soon. That's millions and millions of people out of the tax system at the same time as millions and millions of people going onto benefits alongside a gigantic national debt run up in less than 2 months which will take a decade to repay.

Even post-lockdown, the combination of people being afraid to go out (there are a worrying number of people who seem to think they will drop dead if they open their front door and won't be told otherwise) and afraid/unable to spend money is likely to see a rise in unemployment not seen since the 1930's. Ultimately that will cost lives, possibly many more lives than the virus costs, and without recognition that such a tipping point exists and actively changing tack when it is reached, we will just sleepwalk into economic collapse and justify it as 'putting health first' when we are doing anything but.

Unfortunately, 'waiting until it's safe' which realistically means until there is a vaccine or direct treatment (if either ever happens) is not an option.
GeekyJames
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Latest on the Hammerson - Debenhams saga -

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mar ... -ugly.html
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